FROM class clown to skint, wannabe actor and then international movie star, Sylvester Stallone carved out a career to become one of Hollywood’s most recognisable faces.

The 68-year-old, born in the tough New York district of Hell’s Kitchen, is coming to Manchester next week for a special event where he will talk about his extraordinary life.

An Evening With Sylvester Stallone, at the Phones 4u Arena on Friday, August 1, will also see him talk about his career, from his breakthrough 1976 film Rocky to his latest blockbuster movie franchise The Expendables.

Speaking of his childhood, he said: “I was never the centre of attention, per se, but I was audacious and disruptive, unfortunately.

“Especially in class, I was a jokester, the class clown.

“I, at times, have been put in the corner with a dunce cap. A dunce cap, for real. Can you imagine? No question, I was in the corner so much. So I just knew that I didn’t fit in, in the normal way.

“When I went to school and college I never thought I was going to do anything I was learning about. I was planning to breed horses. I got my first part and all of a sudden the horse idea went out the window.

“It gives you an idea of how serendipitous my life is.”

Sylvester was living in New York and trying to make ends meet as an actor when he found himself sleeping rough in the city’s Port Authority bus station.

Having written the script for Rocky, he was offered $350,000 for the rights by film-makers but refused to sell unless he could play the lead character.

Eventually, after a substantial budget cut to compromise, it was agreed he could be the star and the film went on to be nominated for 10 Oscars, winning three including Best Picture.

Sylvester said: “I hung on for a deal to make the film that I had written and planned to star in, Rocky, until I was so poor I had to sell my dog.

“To this day it mystifies me. The intelligent part of me should have said, ‘Sell the movie, you have no money, you’re starting to eat your clothes but there’s a part inside of you that hangs on’.”

Thanks to the film’s success, he was able to buy his dog back for $1,400 and went on to star in other blockbusters including Rambo, Cliffhanger and Demolition Man.

In his latest film, The Expendables 3 which hits cinemas on August 14, he teams up with an action hero team to end all action hero teams, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford, Jason Statham, Antonio Banderas, Mel Gibson and Wesley Snipes.

He said: “I got the idea that, no matter what, everything fades, you’re only hot once and then your career arcs.

“So when we get to the crest of our careers and I see we’re now beginning to be cast as people’s uncles and grandfathers or the crotchety neighbour, I thought, ‘Hmm, how do we salvage this?’.

“I would see these band revival concerts where older bands would get together so, instead of just one like Deep Purple, there would be 15 groups.

“I thought, what if I were to try that? What if I could get 10 action guys who at one time had their own bright star, put them together and it may create some sort of curiosity interest – ‘I gotta see that!’.”

Throughout the event next week, he will be talking to Hollywood journalist Sandro Monetti and also taking unvetted audience questions.

He said: “I am prepared for the fact they’re not always nice.

“They’ll say, ‘You were born a cripple and you had this horrible voice and crooked mouth — how did you make it?’

“And I go, ‘I wasn’t born cripple. I was born with a paralysed mouth on one side of my face’, and I know they aren’t being cruel but it is basically like asking, ‘How can a creature like you be successful?’

“The main thing people want to know is what is the secret and, boy, everybody has a different idea of what is success, what is love, what is luck?”

An Evening With Sylvester Stallone will take place at Manchester’s Phones 4u Arena on Friday, August 1 at 7.30pm.

For tickets, call 0844 567 0335 or visit olexyfresh.com.